Enolates Friedel-Crafts catalysts

When an ester reacts with a ring-carbon atom in the presence of a Friedel-Crafts catalyst, a cyclic ketone (or its tautomeric enol) is usually formed (p. 378), but in boiling phosphorus oxychloride, the oxygen function may be replaced by a chlorine atom [2634]. A carboxylic acid may react with a suitably placed ring-carbon by heating with either PPA or phosphorus oxychloride [2127] phosphorus pentoxide in xylene is also effective [2347]. When an electron-rich ring such as that of pyrrole is available, heating with acetic anhydride for I h suffices [3913]. 

The concept of a diastereoselective Friedel-Crafts alkylation of a-chiral benzyl alcohols was first examined by Bach and coworkers [62, 63]. The initial protocol required stoichiometric amounts of strong Brpnsted acids like HBF4 and was followed by a more valuable methodology in which catalytic amounts of AuC L were employed for the diastereoselective functionalization of chiral benzyl alcohols [64], Beside arenes, allyl silanes, 2,4-pentanediones and silyl enol ethers have been used as nucleophiles. Depending on the diastereodiscriminating group and on the catalyst (Brpnsted or Lewis acid), the authors observed either the syn or the anti diastereoisomer as the major product. 

Friedel-Crafts alkylation has been used in an important synthesis of aryl C-glycosides, which are potent anti-tumor agents, from glycosyl fluorides (equation 99)65 661. The reaction takes place rapidly in dichloromethane, at room temperature using a novel zirconium complex and silver perchlorate combination catalyst. A similar alkylation has been performed by replacing the aromatic compound with either a silyl enol ether or an allylic compound using silver triflate as the catalyst662,663. 

Three reactions, which were known from the literature to be catalyzed by Lewis acids were selected as test reactions. A, was the Reetz alkylation of silyl enol ethers with -butyl chloride for which titanium tetrachloride is known to be useful [52]. B, was the Diels-Alder reaction between furan and acetylenedicarboxylic ester for which aluminium trichloride is a good catalyst [53]. C, was a Friedel-Crafts acylation for which aluminium trichloride is the preferred catalyst [54]. The reactions are summarized in Scheme 6. 

Alkylation of trimethylsUyllenol ethers. Trimethylsilyl enol ethers of ketones can be alkylated under Friedel-Crafts conditions by f-butyl chloride in CH2CI2 at —23° in the presence of 1 equiv. of a Lewis acid. The order of effectiveness of catalysts is TiCL > ZnCla > SnCU > AICI3. ... 

The introduction of a t-butyl group a - to a carbonyl group has been achieved by Friedel-Crafts alkylation of the appropriate trimethylsilyl enol ether. In the presence of a nickel(ii) catalyst, u/c-bromotrimethylsilyloxyalkenes couple with Grignard reagents to produce alkylated and arylated silyl enol ethers, which, after hydrolysis, furnish the corresponding a-alkylated or a-arylated ketones (Scheme 36). ... 

Carbon-carbon bond forming reactions between carbanionic nucleophiles like enolates or deprotonated nitroalkanes and electron deficient alkenes and alkynes belong to the oldest and most versatile transformations known today (225-229). Moreover, stereoselective variants have proven to possess an enormous potential in the syntheses of complex molecules as already exemplified in Sect. 2.4. Whereas the applications depicted in this previous section utilized nucleophiles activated by enamine formation with a chiral secondary amine catalyst to achieve these highly selective C-C bond formations, the present discussirai will focus on the addition of carbon nucleophiles to iminium-activated Michael acceptors. Herein traditional Michael additions using e.g. enolate nucleophiles will be described whereas the use of aromatic Michael donors with iminium-activated acceptors in Friedel-Crafts type reactions will be discussed separately subsequently. 

Titanium tetrachloride is a moisture-sensitive, highly flammable liquid reacting violently with water (34). It is a strong Lewis acid capable of promoting Diels-Alder reactions (35) and induces the addition of silyl enol ethers and allyl silanes to carbonyl compounds and derivatives (34r-36). It is a less commonly used catalyst in Friedel-Crafts reactions but very useful for the acylation of activated alkenes and in the Fries rearrangement. 

Allylic acylation under Friedel-Crafts conditions has been reported Perchloric acid has been recommended as a catalyst for various 0-acylations such as enol lactonization and enol acetylation of steroids... 

Polysubstituted 3,4-dihydro-3-nitro-2ff-chromans are obtained from the enantioselective Michael—Michael cascade reaction of chalcone enolates and nitromethane catalyzed by bifunctional thiourea 19 (Scheme 31) (13JOC6488) and tandem Friedel—Crafts alkylation—Michael addition reaction of nitroolefin enoates and 1-methylindole promoted by Zn(OTf)2 (13S601).A squaramide-tertiary amine catalyst promotes the asymmetric sulfa-Michael—Michael cascade reaction of thiosalicylates with nitroalkene enoates which leads to polysubstituted chromans in high yields with excellent stereoselectivities (13OL1190). 

The area of reactions of phosphate derivatives has been dominated by highly stereoselective reactions in which the latter were used as chiral catalysts or achiral reagents. Among this group of reactions, it is worthy to note several asymmetric reactions ring opening of w 50-aziridinium and episulfonium ions, addition of alcohols to imines, 1,3-dipolar addition of aldehydes, amino esters and dipolarophiles, protonation of silyl enol ethers, epoxidation of a,p-unsaturated aldehydes, aza-ene-type reactions as well as asymmetric versions of named reactions Mannich, Friedel-Crafts, Kabachnik-Fields, aza-Darzens and aza-Henry. 

Cyclopropyl ketones can be synthesized directly from silyl enol ethers by addition of acid chlorides to a reaction mixture of Simmons-Smith reagent and the enol ether (Scheme 3). In this reaction, the Znl by-product of the cyclopropanation sequence acts as a Friedel-Crafts type catalyst to activate the acid chloride. In related studies, Grignon-Dubois and co-workers have shown that the Friedel-Crafts acylation of cyclopropyltrimethylsilanes also provides an expeditious route to cyclopropyl ketones. 

EtAlCb catalyzes the Friedel-Crafts acylation of alkenes with acid chlorides, the formal [3 + 2] cycloaddition of alkenes with cyclopropane-1,1-dicarboxylates (eq 21), the Friedel-Crafts alkylation of anilines and indoles with ct-aminoacrylate esters, and the formation of allyl sulfoxides from sulfinyl chlorides and alkenes. EtAlCU induces the Beckmann rearrangement of oxime sulfonates. The cationic intermediates can be trapped with enol silyl ethers (eq 22). EtAlC is the preferred catalyst for addition of the cation derived from an a-chloro sulfide to an alkene to give a cation which undergoes a Friedel-Crafts alkylation (eq 23). ... 

Asymmetric catalysis of Friedel-Crafts reaction with fluoral is established using chiral binaphthol-derived titanium catalysts with or without asymmetric activation to provide a practical synthetic route not only for chiral a-trifluorobenzylalcohols but so for highly enantiopure functionalized jS-trifluoroaldols through the sequential diastereoselective reactions of the resultant vinyl ethers or silyl enol ethers with electrophiles. 

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